Various devices have been developed to train people to defend themselves against various edge weapons, for example knives and the like, in a safe and non-injurious manner for the trainee.
Typically, when individuals were training in self defense for edged weapon attacks, they utilized wooden, rubber or plastic knives. Utilizing these training aids lowers the possibility of injury during training.
Unfortunately, since rubber knives are not capable of causing injury or pain, they produce a training environment free of acute stress. This type of training environment is incongruent with human hormonal fear responses that would be present during a real knife attack. The result is training that is not realistic.
According to Cannon, J. A. & Salas, E. (1998), Making Decisions Under Stress, In Driskell, James E. & Johnston, Joan H. Stress Exposure Training (pp. 193) Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association, “Research has shown that, for some tasks normal training procedures (training conducted under normal, non-stress conditions) often do not improve task performance when the task was to be performed under stress conditions (Zakay & Wooler, 1984). These results suggest that, under certain conditions, the transfer of training from classroom conditions to operational conditions may be poor when there are no stress-inclusive simulations or training.”
To address the deficiencies noted above, a knife shaped electric shocking device was described by Jeffrey James Quail in U.S. Pat. No. 7,353,984. The knife shaped electric shocking device disclosed addressed some of the deficiencies of the prior art by having a training knife that delivered an electrical discharge when the blade touched the student. This electrical discharge caused a safe pain stimulus that elevated the stress of the student and provided a realistic training environment. Although the device described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,353,984 includes a flexible blade to minimize injury when in contact with a trainee, the blade is much more suited for use in a slicing motion, and is not particularly well suited for simulating a stabbing motion.